Heart of Stone
by meli101
Summary: Medusa was not always the monster she had been. She was a victim of a Fate, which she could not escape. How did she become the monster of myths? A story filled with suffering, misunderstanding, hatred, repentance and forgiveness. Read and Review please


_A/N: Much research has gone into this story. The timeline for those of you who wish to know is classical Athens. Since it is my first chapter I would really love if you guys gave me suggestions or tell me something I did wrong so I can improve. I liked this chapter, at least the beginning part of it. Please let me know what you think. If you have any questions feel free to PM me or email me, I usually check my email everyday so I'll respond quickly. Hope you guys like it, if not please tell me why. Read and Review._

_Love, Meli_

Eos, the goddess of Dawn, peacefully awoke from her slumber, and rose from the depths of the Ocean, her home. From the foam, she rose in her golden chariot drawn by two dainty white horses, whose powerful snow powdered wings parted the water allowing the goddess to ascend into the dark heavens. The dewy pastel colors of early dawn radiated around her like a halo, illuminating the sky as the horses pulled her forward. Eurus, the east wind, swept Eos's luminescent hair back as well as her saffron robe, as her rosy fingers slowly clasped the reins of her chariot.

The darkness created by Nyx, goddess of Night, slowly effaced from the earth as Eos chased away the dark abyss of night. Her chariot, like that of her brother's, Helios, slightly illuminated all in its path filling the abyss of darkness and stars with the soft colors of mornings. She drew the chariot toward the west, waking people from their dreams as she slowly passed them. The soft pink and indigo colors of the sky replaced the endless black, causing the inhabitants of cities to awaken and the animals to slowly awaken from their slumber.

Athens lay below at her feet, languidly waking from the realm of in which Hypnos, god of Sleep, formed from the depths of Hades, near the river Lethe. His sons, Morpheus, Icelus, and Phantasus retreated to their abode deep within Hades by their father's side as the first light of dawn overcame the darkness. Yet, some still remained under the influence of Hypnos and his three sons.

A young woman tossed and turned in her sleep as Apollo, god of prophecy, looked upon her from the heights of Olympus, where the Olympian gods dwelled. Her ivory pale skin gradually hardened with fear as it changed from a healthy color to the color of the sick and terminally ill. Sweat beaded her forehead and her mouth no longer suppressed screams as she became consumed by her haunting nightmares.

Apollo, the far shooter of the silver bow, descended upon Athens until he found the young woman, whom he sought. His youthful, sun kissed face seemed to turn old and wrinkles delicately formed when he looked at her with eyes that could see where others could not. "It is a sad burden you shall carry into this world, a horrible burden." The young woman could not hear his soft melodic words for she found herself in a nightmare, the same nightmare she conjured every night since she knew.

In her dreams, her husband lay at her feet petrified. His once warm flesh had turned to stone and his heart had also turned to stone so nothing in his body was left alive. His face, she could not stare at his face for long. It seemed to be petrified in sheer horror, with his mouth gaping open in a suppressed scream and his eyes wide at the discovery of something which he would never speak of again.

After finding her husband in that state of death in her very own courtyard, she ran inside the house to seek comfort only to find herself in a pit of snakes. They moved slowly, slithering together in a great mass, anticipating the next movement from her. With their fangs protruding they hissed at her while she backed up against the wall trying to keep them away from any of her flesh.

With each step backward, they drew closer. She gradually climbed a chair in which she hoped they would not be able to bite her, but one slithered on its belly, curving its body to attain just one bite. The snakes believed it was their territory and like all animals, attacked any intruders which they thought were a threat. The snake drew its head back and bared its fangs before slithering forward and sinking its fangs into her ankle.

The lethal poison from the bite infused into her bloodstream and she soon found herself heavier than she remembered. With her eyes half closed, she walked to the front of her house in a trance. Her forehead felt hot with fever and she knew her fate would lead her to the gates of Hades. She walked the streets of Athens, only to find that her neighbors, friends and family in the same state as her husband, their flesh had turned to stone. The great city of Athens echoed any sudden sound for it was filled with a mortal silence that the woman could not comprehend in the state in which she was in.

The little children who infested the city's street with their laughter and games were also fossilized, with a smile on their faces. The poison slowly consumed the only energy the woman possessed and with her few final heartbeats she fell to the floor. She drifted into the ultimate peaceful sleep, yet before she entered the gates of Hades' abode she could hear the cries of a baby in the background. "Horrible…burden." She took her last breath as her heart stopped beating and the poison had entirely consumed her.

The young woman abruptly woke from her sleep squeezing the life out of her bed sheets. Her hand came up to her forehead and she silently let out a gasp of relief when she realized that it was nothing but a dream. But, dreams where often sent by the gods, who watched the humans on their thrones on Olympus; for the gods, who lived eternally, were observant of the fates of mortals.

She sat on her bed for another couple of minutes, deciding whether it would be appropriate to visit a seer, so they would able to interpret her constant nightmares. Then again, she did not wish for her husband to worry himself to death. He had much more important matters to attend to other than silly dreams. Besides, the nightmares might have all been due to the fact that she was terrified at the idea of giving birth to her precious child in the next week or so. She had already swelled up like a balloon and looked ready to explode at any given moment.

Smiling, she gently rubbed her swollen belly, until she felt her child moving within her womb. Usually, the child would throw a random kick when its mother rubbed her belly, but this time the only thing the mother could feel was something slithering inside her. She was dumbfounded, but dismissed the feeling as nothing but her paranoia of the nightmare she had just woken up from.

Quickly, she forgot her nightmare while she rose from her bed in order to start managing the household early. Like all the married women in Athenian society, she managed the household ordering the slaves and servants to do what had to be done and acquiring the food from the markets and stands while she was accompanied by friends or servants, and, most importantly of all, bearing legitimate children for their husbands, hopefully sons. The women were, also, responsible for keeping track of finances and spending, while the men attended assemblies or ecclesia, where they could voice their opinions of political matter, while the women were never allowed to attend.

After ordering her slaves and servants to make breakfast, and prepare lunch and dinner, she sat comfortably in the shade of her open courtyard while spinning wool for clothing she wished to make for her unborn child. The day was completely captivating; it was warm, yet with a refreshing breeze. Wishing to preserve her pale complexion, which was valued in her society, she kept to the edge of the courtyard, where the sun did not hit with such force.

Her husband, born of the aristocracy, had left earlier in the morning to attend the Assembly, and then later he would attend a dinner party, where only men could attend, and probably spend a vast amount of time with hetairai, which were female companions that entertained their customers in pleasurable ways, such as participating in witty conversations, singing and playing instruments, and inviting them to their beds for an expensive price. As she thought of her husband enjoying the warmth of another bed, she did not get angry, rather she remained indifferent. Men were expected to relinquish their urges on other women, when their wives could not satisfy them, and the young woman knew her husband did not wish to take her to bed for fear of hurting the child she carried deep within the womb.

As the day continued, it got warmer and the sun was soon illuminating all of her courtyard; she soon retired to one of the interior rooms of the house, when there was a knock on the door. She ordered a slave to open the door, who quickly returned with the news that it was her mother accompanied by some of her servants. Her mother had gone to the market in the acropolis, but had decided to pay a last minute visit to her daughter.

They spent the afternoon together gossiping about many of the festivals that had taken place and the main festival of Athens, the Panathenaic Festival, which the young woman could not attend due to her pregnancy.

Her mother loved to gossip and praise her children. For her mother, the more achievements that her children had or the better they married, was a reflection on her and her character. "Your brother has recently been acquainted by a great philosopher, who has chosen your brother as a favorite student. Your father is extremely proud of your brother, especially since he is young and has the great workings of an Athenian man."

The young woman's mother had brought the slave that had delivered her and her brother into the world. Unsure of when she would give birth, she wanted her daughter to have the comfort of having an experienced midwife. As the sun set, her mother left the house to make her journey to her own house.

Helios, the sun god, drew his chariot, drawn by four horses, who swept their wings through the air, farther into the west allowing the dark abyss of the goddess, Nyx, to slowly set in the city of Athens. Nyx swept the curtain of darkness across the heavens toward the west, slowly following Helios' chariot of the sun. Soon everything became consumed in darkness as the last lingering light of day vanished and the heavens became as black as the shadows found in Dis, the Underworld, where there was no light except the scorching fires of Tartarus, and the blessed light of the Elysian Fields, where the good and blessed spent their eternal days.

On that day Selene, goddess of the moon, slept in a cave with her lover Endymion, silently mourning that he would forever remain in deep sleep, not leaving the cave for days. Therefore, there was no light in the heavens or the earth.

The young woman, at some point, became worried that her husband was rather late, but thought nothing of it. She quietly hummed to herself as she walked through her house checking that everything was in its proper place and that the servants and slaves were at their quarters. Since the night was so dark and so too, was the inside of the house she mistook a step and fell to the ground injuring her belly. She gasped in pain as she felt something stirring inside of her belly, something trying to slither its way out.

She tried to get herself up from the floor but the pain traveling down her spine became too much. Trying to yell for help, for one of the slaves to come and help her, she found that she couldn't breathe properly. The fall had taken all of the wind out of her lungs and she had to remember to breathe. Horrified at the idea of hurting her unborn child, she pushed herself up off the floor with all the strength she could muster. It took her a few seconds to regain her balance and her senses to notice that her legs felt a bit moist.

Before she could figure out what was happening, the pain of mother hood slowly began to torment her. Her mother had told her there would be pain, but she did not expect it to be so terrible. It was a pain like no other, worse than anything she had ever felt. She clutched at her side, unsure of where the pain had originated from, because everything seemed to be in pain, her back, her legs, her stomach and she felt something trying to push its way out of her. She tried to move toward the slaves' quarters but she soon found that any movement she made heightened her pain.

She yelled for help, but the distance from her and the slaves was too much, not to mention most of them were asleep. The young woman had only been venturing inside the house to ease her mind of whether her husband was home or not.

He was not home, he hadn't even thought of going home. He was being entertained between the legs of a hetairai, and his wife had not crossed his mind all night as he was entrapped by the beauty and enchantments of his companion. As he was enjoying the pleasures of life, his wife was enjoying the pains of labor.

Her breathing became ragged, sweat broke out on her forehead and she soon felt a fever working its way in her body. She soon began grinding her teeth, like she had the habit of doing, to contain her pain for she had nothing to focus her pain on. She no longer had the strength to stand up and she soon collapsed to the floor. She backed up against the nearest wall she could find and spread her legs open, hoping that would relinquish some of the pain, only to find that the contractions of her labor could only get worse. Finally, she mustered a scream, but it was not loud enough to be heard, as she kept screaming she knew nobody in the household could help her, for nobody could hear her. Gradually her voice went hoarse and the volume of her voice was beginning to dim.

She gave up her attempts of waking up the household, for it was diminishing her strength. Not knowing how to give birth, she sat in pain, stunned at the agony of which giving birth to a child could cause. Her father had told tales of war, of men who died in battle by running straight into phalanxes, trying to penetrate the formation of the enemy. They had spears slicing through every part of their body, impaling most of their body parts, puncturing their organs and causing them to bleed to death if they were not already dead. Some of the spears would pierce their heads and their insides would come rotting out of their corpses. At that point the young woman thought she would rather run into those phalanxes a million times than have to suffer the throbbing agony of child birth.

As early as the dawn spreading across the sky her husband arrived, in a rather happy mood at the thought of ravaging his companion again. The young woman heard the door open and began screaming, hoping that her husband would hear her. Seconds later her husband saw her on the floor, drowning in sweat, with eyes half closed and gritting her teeth as her nostrils flared. Her skin, which had been a creamy ivory, had turned into a deathly, chalky pale that would have done Hades, god of the dead, justice.

She had not slept anything the whole night because the aching and agony would not let her be in peace. The contractions had gotten worse through the night and her fever had only gotten worse. Her husband panicked as soon as he set eyes on her.

"Get the slaves!" She yelled at him. Completely dazed he ran to the slaves' quarters and brought the slave that her mother had brought along with some other slaves to help him carry her to her room. He slightly touched his wife's forehead and found it as hot as the scorching ground on a hot summer's day.

As soon as she was safely in her room, her husband left, simply because it was tradition and because he did not have the stomach to observe any further. Ilithyia, goddess of childbirth, had been busy the entire night helping other women get through childbirth that she did not arrive to the young woman's house until late in the afternoon. By that time, the young woman's fever had already begun to rot her brain; the labor of childbirth and her exhaustion were other assets to her condition. The slaves had tried to bring the fever down by placing a wet cloth over her forehead, but nothing they did seemed to help. She wouldn't eat or rather she couldn't; the labor wouldn't let her eat because her body rejected everything. When Ilithyia presided over the house, her agony slowly eroded as she found the contractions were less painful.

Before she finally gave birth, the Moirae, or the Fates, worked in their endless chamber located in the depths of Dis, or the Underworld. As Clotho spun the thread of life for the new unborn infant, Atropos placed a thread between the openings of her abhorred shear. Lachesis, took the thread from her sister clothos and began weaving it into the fabric in a trance. After her trance, Lachesis stared at her new work and silently shook her head. "My sisters, it is a tragic fate this child shall carry, a fate that she cannot escape."

The young woman had finally given birth, but her price to pay was her life and she could sense Thanatos, god of death, slowly waiting for her departure. She smiled as she saw her newborn baby girl and tears rimmed her eyes as she thought of herself dying so soon that she would not be able to see her daughter grow up. "Call my husband into the room, please" The servants did as they were told and in a matter of minutes her husband was in her bed next to her staring at his child.

"She's beautiful" he said, although it was evident in his eyes the disappointment of not having been borne a son.

She tightly grabbed his hand, "I am sorry, my dear loving husband, that I could not bear you a son, but I am weak. I can feel Death. I know I will die. Thank you for everything. But promise me that you will love our daughter and take care of her. I know you will, but I want you to promise me."

He looked deep into her eyes and saw the life escaping from them; he felt the sudden guilt of being with a companion when she was dying. He kept thinking that f he had been home, he could have helped her. Out of guilt he replied, "I promise you, I will love our daughter and take care of her. She will make you proud. What are you going to name her?" He spoke solemnly, while he watched his young wife breath more heavily and her heavy eyes close.

With her last breath she uttered the name, "Medusa."

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